The Palestinian premier has said it will be disastrous for his people and the world at large if U.S. President Donald Trump wins re-election next month.
Speaking remotely to European lawmakers, Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh said the last four years of the Trump administration have greatly harmed the Palestinians.
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Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh at his office in Ramallah
(Photo: Reuters)
“If we are going to live another four years with President Trump," he said, God help us and the whole world, Shtayyeh said Monday. The comments were posted on his Facebook page.
The Palestinians have traditionally refrained from taking an explicit public position in American presidential elections.
Shtayyeh’s comments reflected the sense of desperation on the Palestinian side after a series of U.S. moves that have left them weakened and isolated.
The Palestinians severed ties with Trump after he recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in late 2017 and subsequently moved the American Embassy to the city.
Trump has also cut off hundreds of millions of dollars of American aid to the Palestinians, shut the Palestinian diplomatic offices in Washington and issued a Mideast plan this year that largely favored Israel. The Palestinians have rejected the plan out of hand.
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L-R: Bahrain FM Abdullatif al-Zayani, PM Benjamin Netanyahu, U.S. President Donald Trump, and Emirati FM Abdullah bin Zayed Al-Nahyan at the signing of the Abraham Accords at the White House
(Photo: AFP)
The Trump administration also has persuaded two Arab countries, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, to establish full diplomatic relations with Israel and promised that other Arab nations will follow suit. These deals have undercut the traditional Arab consensus that recognition of Israel only come in return for an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal — a rare source of leverage for the Palestinians.
Shtayyeh expressed hope that a victory by the Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden would raise prospects for a peace deal.
“If things are going to change in the United States I think this will reflect itself directly on the Palestinian-Israeli relationship,” he said.
“And it will reflect itself also on the bilateral Palestinian-American relationship.”